What’s up everyone?
Well, we had another break in the weather and you know what that means. Weekend trip! This time though we headed North, more East….possibly South East, towards the snow covered mountains. Normally I would want to be headed South to get out of the snow. I’m not much of a winter activity person. Unless it involves a snowmobile then I might change my mind. I’ve been snowboarding once before and it didn’t end to well for me. I jacked up my shoulder and I couldn’t lift my arm above the shoulder for several weeks. That ended my snowboarding and skiing career before it even began. Don’t get me wrong though, I will get out and play when the need arises and the need did arise. We felt like we needed to get out of town and found ourselves on a little adventure to Midway, Utah.
Midway is a small town, of about 4,000 to 5,000 people, in the Wasatch Mountains. It is about 30 miles from Salt Lake City. I don’t want to call it a ski town, its more like a farming community that turns into a ski town after the snow falls. Midway is home to several world class resorts. There is a lot more to Midway than farming and skiing though. Midway sits upon a geothermal hot spot. There are several dozen hot springs, better known as hot pots, in the area. The water in most of these hot pots are around 90 to 95 degrees. The largest and best known of these hot pots is the Homestead Crater, found at the Homestead Resort. The crater is over 200 ft in diameter, 55 ft in height, with a water depth of over 65 ft. A trip to the crater allows you to soak, swim, and even scuba dive year round. We were unable to reserve a time so we were not able to go see it. A shame really. I’m not much of a water person either, but even I think that it would have been pretty cool to rest my wary bones in the waters of this giant hot spring. There is always next time, I guess. Some of the other major attractions include Swiss Days, Wasatch Mountain State Park and, the reason for our trip, the Midway Ice Castles. I’ll get into them a little bit later though.
We left mid afternoon, we couldn’t check in until 4 PM, to head up to Midway. It was close to lunchtime by the time we got up there, so we decide to find a place to eat before making our way to the hotel. I had talk with several of my coworkers and they told me about a few restaurants that were supposed to be really good. We considered their suggestions and decided not to go with any of them. We elected to go to the Back 40 Ranch House Grill. You can’t miss it. It’s an old brick house with a giant yurt attached to it just off of Highway 40. The Back 40 is a farm to table style restaurant. Which means all the ingredients are locally grown and the beef comes from the surrounding ranches. By doing this they have the freshest ingredient as possible which makes the food taste a whole lot better. We both had the Back 40 Burger and it was fabulous. Lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions, pastrami, jalapeño bacon cheddar, special sauce, all layered on top of a organically fed beef patty. What more could you ask for? Not much I would suspect. To be honest, we just order off the lunch menu so I’m not sure what they all have but what they had on the lunch menu all sounded pretty tasty. We’ll have to go back to try something else.
By the time we finished lunch it was close enough for us to check in. We had made reservation at the Zermatt Resort. The Zermatt is designed in a traditional Swiss-style. I think of it this way a alpine ski chalet mixed with an old world hunting lodge. I could be way out in left field though. I’m really not an expert on architecture. Once we got settled into our room we decided to see what the hotel had to offer. We found out that the resort had just about everything that you would need. Besides the 300 rooms it has: several conference rooms, an indoor pool that is attached to the outdoor pool, two restaurants, a pub, health and wellness center, spa, a bakery and so much more. You could just hang out at the hotel and not have to leave but don’t do that there is lots to see and do around the area. I will suggest this though. You should at least hit up the bakery. They have excellent pastries and gelato. We had a piece of chocolate cake that was moist and delicious.
The main event, the whole reason for the trip, didn’t happen until the sun came down. The Midway Ice Castles. Just down the street from the Zermatt sits the Homestead Resort. Homestead has been the home to the Ice Castles since their founding in 2011. Since then, every winter ice artist go out and create massive ice structures out of tens of thousands of icicles. The artists also carve out thrones, caves, tunnels, slides, and to top it off a fountain. Midway is not the only place you can find these castles. Midway is one of six towns that you can find throughout the United States that host the castles. I feel like I shouldn’t have to mention this but track records prove otherwise. The Ice Castles are a seasonal attraction. They typically run from mid December to early March. This can change without warning as it is based on the weather. The warmer it get the faster the ice melts creating unsafe conditions for visitor. Make sure to research and plan your trip accordingly. I don’t want you to miss out if it is avoidable.
As far as us, we had a lot of fun exploring the castles. Erin has a chance to try the slide.....twice. We found out that you needed the right type of clothing to go down effectively. The people that wore jeans tended to have a harder time. They ended up having to scoot all the way to the end. While those that had slicker clothing like yoga or ski pants ended up speeding through it. Erin’s first attempt did not go as expected, she slid for about 3 inches and then stop, forcing he to scoot her way down to the bottom. On her second attempt, she decided to lay on her back. She ended up flying down the slide and fling out the bottom. The conclusion to this tale: clothes with less friction makes you go fast on the ice.
I enjoy the simpler things in life. My favorite thing about the castles was how they integrated the LED lighting into the ice. It was a simple thing but it helped to create a different type of ambiance to the whole thing. I’m sure it would have been just as impressive if they had placed flood lights in front of them but having the ice actually change color from inside made the ice feel like it was alive and gave it a more magical feel.
From there our trip pretty well came to an end. We ate dinner at Wildfire Steakhaus in the hotel, which was good, and we left the following morning. It was a really fun trip even though it was short. It goes to show you that you don’t have to plan out some extravagant adventure to have fun. Some of the best trip are weekend trips. I definitely think that the ice castle are worth seeing. Unfortunately you’ll have to wait until next winter. According to the website they have closed for the season. I think we made it to the last good weekend.
Until next time, thanks for stopping by.
Josh
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